Know Your Company

Way too many people work for a company and don’t even understand its mission. That makes it difficult for them to do their jobs as well as they should.

Don’t be one of those people. Instead, know why the company exists and make sure that everything you do as a marketer helps fulfill its mission.

Next, take a look at the company’s marketing history. Make note of the past successful marketing strategies. Are they still ongoing?

Also, consider the company’s past marketing failures. What can you learn from them?

Next: learn about the company’s sales cycle. What does it look like? How long does it take to usually seal the deal? Where does the company get its leads?

After that, review the company’s marketing channels. What are its best channels? Are there any glaring omissions?

Finally, take a look at the tools the company currently uses for marketing. Make sure you go through the learning curve to understand all of them completely. If there are any tools that the company doesn’t have that you think you need to do your job, use your personal marketing skills to get those tools.

Know Your Customer

Knowing your customer might be the most important part of your job.

Start by looking at existing customers. Get all the data you can from existing sales info.

Then, crunch through that data. You’ll likely need one or more tools to help you handle the task.

Do your customers share any traits? Do they have common interests or demographics?

In case you aren’t familiar with buyer personas, they’re descriptions of ideal customers in your target market. They’re useful because they not only help you create marketing messages, but also help you segment your market for highly targeted campaigns.

Here’s an idea: if you want to get to know your customers, jump on a support line for a few hours. You’ll likely learn more that way than from all the marketing textbooks you could read in one lifetime.

As a bonus, you can use the info you gather from your support calls to further improve your buyer personas.

Know Your Competition

Competition is the nature of the free market. That’s great for consumers, but it often presents challenges for marketers.

Why? Because you have to outmaneuver your competitors.

One of the best ways to achieve greater success than your competitors is by looking at their marketing strategies. Then, you can either counter those strategies in your own marketing or imitate them if you think they can work for your brand as well.

Also, learn from the mistakes your competitors have made. That way, you won’t make those same mistakes yourself.